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California AG and state senators introduce bill to ban hidden fees

oag.ca.gov

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Re: California AG and state senators introduce bill to ban hidden fees

#4

Post by warning26 »

miguelazo wrote: post #2

Can't wait. AirBnB is one of the worst offenders here.

Interestingly, I believe Australia already did this, and so if you go to Airbnb’s Australia site you see the real prices.

Personally I hope this apppies to “resort fees” at hotels; it’s ridiculous that hotels can have a mandatory fee that they can exclude from their posted price.

Re: California AG and state senators introduce bill to ban hidden fees

#5

Post by eganist »

Tons of industries affected by this, though hospitality comes to mind as being particularly egregious. "resort fees" you can't get out of where they tell you what you're "getting" for those fees, Airbnb service fees, cleaning fees, things that should all be spread across the nightly rate. The feds doing this for airfare was the best thing to happen for consumers shopping for flights.

Ideally we would take it further and include restaurant fees post-covid for fair wages when instead they frankly should just be hiking the cost of food and paying their teams properly. Not sure if this bill affects the service industry specifically but the late tacking-on of mandatory fees is getting egregious.

---

Edit: I'm staying at an IHG property right now that says I'm getting the following for my $29 amenity fee:

• $15 credit for incidentals

• "premium" wifi

• newspaper access

• tablet from the front desk

• free Lyft within two miles (this is kinda useful if you're too lazy to walk)

• free EV charging

• wine reception

• business center

• gym

• free calls within CONUS

I used none of these and yet they won't refund the fee.

Re: California AG and state senators introduce bill to ban hidden fees

#7

Post by eclipticplane »

eganist wrote: post #5

Tons of industries affected by this, though hospitality comes to mind as being particularly egregious. "resort fees" you can't get out of where they tell you what you're "getting" for those fees, Airbnb service fees, cleaning fees, things that should all be spread across the nightly rate. The feds doing this for airfare was the best thing to happen for consumers shopping for flights. Ideally we would take it further…

Those resort fees are the absolute worst for corporate travel. E.g., the budget for a hotel might be $300/night so you get one for $290/night. Then they tack on a $45/night "resort fee" and suddenly you're getting yelled at by accounting for going over your budget. That is, if you even remember to expense it since they charge it to your incidental card ...

Re: California AG and state senators introduce bill to ban hidden fees

#8

Post by switz »

Taxes and fees should be mandated for all prices up front.

This is how it works in most of the world, there's no good reason it shouldn't work that way here in the US.

Someone will come along and point out an edge case, but for the vast majority of retail situations this is doable.

Re: California AG and state senators introduce bill to ban hidden fees

#9

Post by yieldcrv »

I almost booked a Turo for an extended period of time, peer to peer rental cars, it gave me a 40% discount for that time length, but all of that discount was erased by fees and it was more expensive than the previous page said it would be.

Curb stomp them please, thanks.

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